ANNO DOMINI HIGH DEFINITION

The first thing I heard about this 4th studio release by Riverside was on my own thread about the band where I questioned their metal status and called them more heavy prog overlooking their career so far. One of the responders said their new album was going to be more metal than their previous ones and therefore Riverside would be adequate in the prog metal subgenre after all. Well, I don't know how the member knew this at that point because this was several months ago but probably he had some inside information because I can only admit he was right. Anno Domini is by far their roughest output so far.

Things start with Hyperactive, an energetic shorter song proving this point immediately. This song can compete with their roughest material on SLS in my opinion. The song has a nice pace and though the song took quite some listenings before getting the hang of it, I'm really into it now. This also goes for the rest of the album by the way, this is not very accessible I have to say but that always has a certain charm too and it proves the progressive calibre of an album , nothing wrong with that, is there ? 4*.

Driven to Destruction is already more epic and inventive than previous. Especially the vocals remind of their earlier albums but musically also this one is somewhat innovative with some nice haunting keys in the second half of the song. Really metal this one as well. 4,25*.

Egoist Hedonist is the first that really got stuck in my system first few times I listened to the album. This is truly a memorable song and the most accessible of the album. This is what I call a terrific composition, the build up and concept are excellent and again also this one is pretty metal. So after having listened to this album many times by now I have to agree Riverside is a prog metal band after all. This song is the highlight for me and I love the wind section after a few minutes which proves a brilliant idea ! 4,75*.

Left Out starts more laid back in a wonderful way giving the song an ambient dreamy feel. After two minutes Piotr accompanies and the song turns into a rock ballad, after this the mood within the song keeps changing but remains on the quiet side most of the time only getting a bit heavier towards the end. Another winner on this maginificent album. So far it's close to masterpiece status for me. 4,5 *.

Hybrid Times is a splendid closer in my opinion summing up all elements I heard so far in the other songs. Yet there is no special feature in this song to me like in third track, this is more like an overall very good track. Some nice guitar by Piotr around the 8 minute mark. 4,5*.

Like I said, close to a masterpiece but just misses out on that for me and not for the first time the average the album has so far on our site (4,33) is the right one for me. Second Life Syndrome is still their best album in my opinion but this one has moved up second place.